State of Texas Archives: on Welfare & Poverty

Steve Stockman:
1990s: Homeless in Fort Worth's Water Gardens park

In 1994, Stockman ran for office as a political novice, with a bootstrap story that began with his time living in Fort Worth's Water Gardens park ("I called myself 'Max,'?" he told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1995, "because I figured this was
the maximum I could go down.") He managed to unseat Jack Brooks (D-Tex.), a longtime congressman, in one of the biggest surprises of Newt Gingrich's Republican rout.